Phu Yen urged to expedite flood-proof home project

Update:
June, 12/2015 - 16:53

A flood-proof house of a resident in Xuan Son Bac Commune, in Phu Yen Province's Dong Xuan District. — Photo dantri.com.vn

PHU YEN (VNS) — Phu Yen should speed up the project for building flood-proof houses for poor households, said Vu Xuan Thien, deputy head of the Department for Housing and Real Estate Market Management, under the Ministry of Contruction.

Thien said the project met the quality criteria, but was running behind schedule.

He led a working group to inspect and evaluate the quality of flood-proof houses in the central Phu Yen Province.

In line with Prime Minister's Decision 48/2014/QD-TTg, dated August 28, 2014, the province will provide financial assistance to build 420 flood-proof homes for poor households, with the total expenditure expected to be more than VND21 billion (US$963,000). About 336 of these houses will be built this year and the rest will be constructed next year.

The province has so far helped to build 110 flood-proof houses, accounting for about 33 per cent of the plan target.

The slow progress is to be blamed on state budget allocation, which happens so close to the Lunar New Year that poor households hesitate to build houses, and on the low disbursement of preferential loans by the social policy bank.

Thien said the state budget would allocate more than VND 5.8 billion (US$266,000) for the province this year to speed up the programme's implementation.

He said the province should build 420 flood-proof houses this year, instead of completing the construction over two years [2015-16] as planned, to improve the living conditions of poor households as well as to minimise the damage caused by floods and storms.

He also asked the province to make flood-proof houses for households that have not been classified as poor.

In 2013, Phu Yen piloted the building of 100 flood-proof homes for poor households along the Rivers Ky Lo and Cai in the mountainous districts of Dong Xuan and Tuy An. — VNS